HistoryCAT -- General Thread, Part Four

The last thread was getting long and I thought we might all find it easier to see what the months ahead hold if we had the list right at the top. As you can see, we're almost all set, with only March and October still open.

Here's the lineup:

January: BC to 1 Myths & Legends -- LittleTaiko http://www.librarything.com/topic/184608#

February: 1 to 500 Religion -- Kristelh

March: 500 to 1000 Exploration & Conquest -- aliciamay

April: 1000 to 1300 Crime & Mysteries -- LibraryCin

May: 1300 to 1500 Plagues & Disasters -- klarusu

June: 1500 to 1600 Culture & the Arts -- Tanya-dogearedcopy

July: 1600 to 1700 Immigration & Migration -- cbl_tn

August: 1700 to 1800 Medicine & Disease -- RidgewayGirl

September: 1800 to 1850 Lifestyles of Ordinary People -- DeltaQueen50

October: 1850 to 1900 Science & Technology -- majkia

November: 1900 to 1945 War & Peace -- sallylou61

December: 1945 to 1990 Civil Rights & Equality -- sjmccreary

So what are you planning on reading? Do you know of any books that fit both time period and theme for any particular month?

Thank you, yes!

I expect to read Thomas Becket in April, as his murder was an important crime in that period. That will also be a biography group read unless something very surprising happens before the vote ends tonight.

Okay, okay, I can't stand it any longer. I'll take October so we can have the calendar finished out. And, I did push for the science and tech category.

Thanks, majkia. I'm definitely not going to mention now that March is still open. : )

oh argh

I'm bringing forward the wiki link, hope that is fine. http://www.librarything.com/wiki/index.php/2015_HistoryCAT#2015_HistoryCAT

I'll take March. Glad there's already been a bunch of discussion and possible books listed otherwise this would be rather daunting!

Thanks, aliciamay.

And with that we are ready for the new year!

The Biography Group Reads have been set, and we have matched them to the HistoryCAT months as far as possible.

2nd Quarter Thomas Becket April Time and Theme
3rd Quarter The Black Count August Time
4th Quarter I know why the Caged Bird Sings November Time or December Theme

Some ideas for next year
January: BC to 1 Myths & Legends -- LittleTaiko
Siddhartha by Hesse
Cleopatra: A Life by Schiff
The Penelopiad by Atwood
The Road to Sardis by Plowman
The Gifts of the Jews by Cahill
The Ring of Solomon by Stroud
Death Comes as the End by Christie
The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman

February: 1 to 500 Religion -- Kristelh
Quo Vadis by Sienkiewicz
Barabbas or The Sibyl, The Death of Ahasverus The Holy Land all by by Lagerkvist
Mark of the Lion Trilogy by Francine Rivers
Ben Hur by Lew Wallace
The Robe by Lloyd Douglas
Claudius, the God by Graves
Julian by Gore Vidal
Memoirs of Hadrian by Marguerite Yourcenar, 1001 book, published 1951.

March: 500 to 1000 Exploration & Conquest -- aliciamay
Something by Bernard Cornwell
Gentlemen of the Road by Chabon
Pope Joan
The Long Ships

April: 1000 to 1300 Crime & Mysteries -- LibraryCin
Thomas Becket: Warrior, Priest, Rebel by John Guy
The Sheen of Silk by Anne Perry
Alchemy of Fire by Brandshaw
Illuminations: a novel of Hildegard Von Bingen - Mary Sharatt

May: 1300 to 1500 Plagues & Disasters -- klarusu
World Without End by Follett
Year of Wonders by Brooks

June: 1500 to 1600 Culture & the Arts -- Tanya-dogearedcopy

July: 1600 to 1700 Immigration & Migration -- cbl_tn
Silence by Endo (this is about missionary but really that is migration

August: 1700 to 1800 Medicine & Disease -- RidgewayGirl
Not fitting the theme but An Interesting Narrative in the Life of Olaudah Equiano
Measuring the World by Kehlmann
The Eight by Neville
The Black Count

September: 1800 to 1850 Lifestyles of Ordinary People -- DeltaQueen50

October: 1850 to 1900 Science & Technology -- majkia
Sacre Bleu by Moore
Silk by Baricco
The Secret Agent by Conrad
Death Comes for the Archbishop by Cathers
March by Brooks

November: 1900 to 1945 War & Peace -- sallylou61
Survival in Auschwitz by Levi
Ironweed
Laughing Boy
Schindler's List
Alienist

December: 1945 to 1990 Civil Rights & Equality -- sjmccreary
The Fifties by Halberstam
Praying for Sheet Rock

I still have a couple of months that I need to research and some of my months don't fit the theme but do the time frame. This list is just a working list and subject to change.

LOL, I usually sort my stacks for next year's challenge over the US Thanksgiving holiday week-end; but I got a bit eager and carried away! For the HistoryCAT alone, I pretty much ended up pulling down all of my non-fiction shelves! Hmmm, I've managed to overwhelm myself. I think I'm just going to go at this month by month. So, for January, I'm going to read The Epic of Gilgamesh. I have the translation by Benjamin Foster; but I'm going to see if I can get a copy of the translation by Andrew George instead. also have The Buried Book (by David Damrosch) which is about the discovery and translation of the clay tablets upon which The Epic of Gilgamesh was written in cuneiform. I'll put that one aside for consideration. Maybe I'll read both :-)

I'm no where near as big a planner as many of you. Keep those suggestions coming. As the months near I'll certainly be scrambling to find something in the massive TBR or from the library.

Has anyone read Longbourn? Does it fit for September? Not sure of the year it takes place.

Yes, September.

Yes, I can use suggestions for June and September especially but will enjoy seeing what other people are considering. If any 1001 Books fit any of the months, let me know.

Pride and Prejudice was published in 1813, so we can assume that Longbourn took place about then. I've put it on my list and moved it to the 'Don't read until next year!' shelf.

I've started drafting out my reads, following the time periods and only sometimes the themes:

January: Sophocles 1 (The Theban Plays: Antigone, Oedipus the King, Oedipus at Colonus); I'd also really like to fit in Rubicon as well.
February: The Confessions
March: Before and After Muhammad
April: The Ornament of the World (I was supposed to read this one this year....)
May: TBD, possibly 1491
June: The Unquenchable Flame: Discovering the Heart of the Reformation
July: The Scientific Revolution; possibly also Tulipomania
August: TBD
September: 12 Years a Slave
October: Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee; possibly also The Devil in the White City
November: The Grapes of Wrath
December: TBD, maybe something by MLK.

Also, is there a convenient way to get to the wiki? I keep going back and doing ctrl-F in the previous thread.

It is in message >6 Kristelh: here or on the group page.

>18 _Zoe_: If you use Windows, you can drag the little icon next to the wiki url on to your desktop. Yay! I just learned this!

#18 by @_Zoe_> Zoe, I put a link to wikis on my home page in the Your NOtes feature.

Thanks for the good suggestions! I ended up adding it to my home page notes.

I've been trying to find a "notes" section on my home page, but I can't see it! Can anyone point me in the right direction?

#23 by @christina_reads> We're talking about the 'dashboard' you get when you select HOME from the LT menu above. The module is entitled 'Your Notepad'. If you can't see it there already you might find it by selecting 'unused' from the left side menu. I have no idea which area it was originally in, but it's in there somewhere! When you find it left click on the + sign and select 'add to' then select 'dashboard' from the drop down menu at the top.

I think it's in About You.

>24 majkia: >25 hailelib: Thanks! I will try looking in "unused" and "about you."

ETA: It worked! It is under the "about you" category in the sidebar, if anyone's interested. :)

For 2014, Eva was kind enough to put the links to the wikis in the intro for the 2014 thread. Now that some of the Cats are decided, maybe she'll do the same this year? hint, hint

They are now on the group page.

Thanks -Eva-!

Thanks for the nudge - I've not had even close to as much time to spend around here as I would like lately. Please, never hesitate to leave me a PM if you notice that I've missed something.

A candidate for the October challenge covering both the time period (1850-1900) and the topic (Science and Technology) would be The Children's Blizzard by David Laskin. It goes into great detail about weather forecasting and also about the process of freezing to death (and the medical treatment for people with frozen body parts).

>24 majkia: Ooooh, I "My Notes" feature? I will have to go check that out...

(And I'm not sure how the heck I missed that a new thread had been started for so long!)

January thread is up and ready to go. I apologize for setting it up a day or two early, but between work and other parts of my life, this is really the only time I have to set everything up.

https://www.librarything.com/topic/184608

Early is always good!

I'm looking for recommendations for April (1000-1300). I strongly prefer non-fiction. Any ideas?

>35 March-Hare: David Howarth's 1066: The Year of the Conquest is a great, readable overview of the Norman Conquest. I also liked A Concise History of the Crusades by Thomas F. Madden. Then there's Who Murdered Chaucer? by Terry Jones, which would actually fit both the time period and the theme. And though I haven't read it, I've heard good things about Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror: The Calamitous 14th Century.

For fiction, I love Ellis Peters' Brother Cadfael mysteries, which are set against the backdrop of the first English civil war. Pretty much anything by Sharon Kay Penman would also work. Also Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose!

ETA: I guess some of these books are actually a bit too late for the period, since they're set in the 1300s, but the cutoff is 1300. Oops!

>36 christina_reads:

Thanks for the recommendations. I'm still bummed that the Name of the Rose just misses the time period. I'm leaning towards Before the Industrial Revolution: 1000-1700 which doesn't quite fit either.

March's HistoryCAT thread is now open!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/188054#

I've now posted April's HistoryCAT:

http://www.librarything.com/topic/188952

Has the May thread been opened?

>40 RidgewayGirl: I was just about to come ask about that. I was wondering if I'd missed seeing it.

>40 RidgewayGirl: Sill nothing... :-( If I wasn't so busy this week (and into the weekend), I'd offer to come up with something. I could start a thread, but there would be no information, nor suggestions in it... I just don't have time to do the research!

>40 RidgewayGirl: If you can wait until tomorrow, I'll put something up! I realize that I haven't been the most active on the CAT, but I have been lurking and I'd be more than happy to help. Let me know.

EDIT: I went ahead and set up the thread... Hope it suffices

https://www.librarything.com/topic/190808

Thank you so much, Tanya. I left a few messages for the person originally scheduled, but haven't heard back. I hope she's ok!

I got swamped with a rush work project this morning, so I didn't get the June thread up yet. I will have it up tomorrow though! :-)

EDIT: 16MAY2015 - The June Thread is up!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/191186

The July thread is up!

The August thread is up!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/193498

The September thread is up!

http://www.librarything.com/topic/194515#

I've completed my HistoryCAT challenge for the year. According to my log, I read between one and eight books for each month's time and/or theme. Although I love historical fiction, which is what I mainly filled my challenge with, I found that I did not like as well having the dual emphasis each month. I think I'd prefer a more simple, straightforward version. Nonetheless, I enjoyed the vast majority of the books I chose to fit, and enjoyed the challenge. You did a fine job with the way the challenges played out, RidgewayGirl!